Tuesday, November 26, 2013

T-shirt said 'no to fracking,' but did Francis? (Comment)

An anti-fracking pope?

That question led the Francis effect into environmental circles last week, as a photo on Twitter
showed the pontiff holding up a T-shirt that read, in Spanish, "No to
fracking."

Holding the shirt in the photo along with the pope are
Fernando "Pino" Solanas and Juan Pablo Olsson, two Argentine
environmental activists who, along with other Argentines, met with
Francis Nov. 11 at the Vatican. Solanas is the director of the recent
documentary "La Guerra del Fracking" ("The Fracking War").

On social media, the photo -- and another showing the pope holding a
T-shirt saying "Water is worth more than gold" -- soon circulated among
eco-watchers, leading some to interpret the gesture as a stance against
the controversial drilling process.

Headlines, such as this one from Newsday, announced Francis as the "world's newest anti-fracking activist."

Others weren't so convinced.

At Time.com, Elizabeth Dias sought to temper the anti-fracking
excitement, suggesting that Francis didn't come out against fracking, but against poverty.

She pointed out that the previous three popes have typically spoken
about ecological justice in terms of addressing poverty.

For instance,
when St. Francis of Assisi became patron saint of ecology in 1979 under
Pope John Paul II in addition to patron saint of the poor, it
strengthened the connection between the two causes.

"Posing with environmental activists of any kind—fracking or other—is
a way for Pope Francis to show his solidarity with the people
ecological injustice largely hurts," Dias said.

"That's the heartbeat of
his mission, of his very name and identity."

Francis appeared to emphasize the connection between poverty and the
environment, tweeting three days after the meeting with the Argentines: Dias also pointed out that it has been the Argentine filmmaker and
the activist who have pushed the anti-fracking Francis image, not the
Vatican.

The Vatican has so far been silent, with the audience not
listed in Vatican news releases, nor providing a statement on the
meeting or ensuing anti-fracking fervor.

Outside of the shirts photos, others grasped to reports that Francis
would soon formally take on environmental issues.

EJOLT, an
environmental justice coalition who had a member present at the meeting,
blogged Nov. 12
that during a conversation about water contamination, the pope
"mentioned that he is preparing an encyclical about nature, humans and
environmental pollution."

Early reports
have described Francis in the early stages of working on an encyclical
under the title "Blessed are the Poor."

If that's the case, any
discussion of ecology would likely come in the context of those with the
least and affected the most.